Iranian teen in metro assault likely ‘brain dead’: Report
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Armita Garawand, 16, was left in a coma after an alleged assault on the Teheran metro by female police officers.
PHOTO: SCREENGRABS/X
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TEHERAN - An Iranian teen who was left in a coma after an alleged assault on the Teheran metro
The condition of Armita Garawand, 16, was first reported on Oct 3 by a Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw, which said she had been critically wounded during an incident on the metro.
It came just over a year after the death of Ms Mahsa Amini, also a Kurdish Iranian woman, for allegedly breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women in an incident that unleashed months of mass protests across Iran, marking the biggest challenge to the country’s clerical leaders in decades.
On Sunday, the state-affiliated Borna news agency said it “seems certain” that Garawand was “brain dead”. It had reported on Oct 11 that her condition had deteriorated.
According to state news agency IRNA, Garawand fainted because of low blood pressure. But Hengaw said she was hurt in a confrontation with female police officers on the metro for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.
Garawand lives in Teheran but comes from Kermanshah, a city some 500km from the Iranian capital, in Kurdish-populated western Iran.
Her condition sparked interest in the West, with both Germany and the United States raising concerns about the case after a purported video of the incident circulated on social media.
The teenager, who was with friends and apparently not wearing a headscarf, is said to have been pushed into a metro carriage by female police agents.
The head of the Teheran metro has denied there was any verbal or physical altercation between the teenager and passengers or staff. AFP
